The Measure of Progress: Counting What Really Matters

Diane Coyle; Diane Coyle

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The Measure of Progress

Counting What Really Matters

Diane Coyle and Diane Coyle

Language: English

Published/Copyright: 2025

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About this book

Why do we use eighty-year-old metrics to understand today’s economy?

The ways that statisticians and governments measure the economy were developed in the 1940s, when the urgent economic problems were entirely different from those of today. In The Measure of Progress, Diane Coyle argues that the framework underpinning today’s economic statistics is so outdated that it functions as a distorting lens, or even a set of blinkers. When policymakers rely on such an antiquated conceptual tool, how can they measure, understand, and respond with any precision to what is happening in today’s digital economy? Coyle makes the case for a new framework, one that takes into consideration current economic realities.

Coyle explains why economic statistics matter. They are essential for guiding better economic policies; they involve questions of freedom, justice, life, and death. Governments use statistics that affect people’s lives in ways large and small. The metrics for economic growth were developed when a lack of physical rather than natural capital was the binding constraint on growth, intangible value was less important, and the pressing economic policy challenge was managing demand rather than supply. Today’s challenges are different. Growth in living standards in rich economies has slowed, despite remarkable innovation, particularly in digital technologies. As a result, politics is contentious and democracy strained.

Coyle argues that to understand the current economy, we need different data collected in a different framework of categories and definitions, and she offers some suggestions about what this would entail. Only with a new approach to measurement will we be able to achieve the right kind of growth for the benefit of all.

Author / Editor information

Diane Coyle is the Bennett Professor of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge. She is the author of Cogs and Monsters: What Economics Is and What It Should Be, GDP: A Brief but Affectionate History (both Princeton), and many other books.

Reviews

"[Coyle] offers a full-ranging account of attempts to measure aggregate economic activity. . . . Highly recommended." --- "These wide-ranging, careful, and highly intelligent discussions make this a valuable book for even those without a significant interest in the immediate issues related to GDP."---Kenneth S. Friedman, Interdisciplinary Journal of Economics and Business Law --- "Economic accounting’s use of gross domestic product dates back to the 1940s. It must now change, argues economist Diane Coyle . . . [Her] complex study, deftly made accessible, suggests a fresh approach."---Andrew Robinson, Nature --- "In this book, which surveys a wide range of literature, Coyle goes much further than has been done before in monetary economics, setting out the problems with many current measures of components of GDP clearly."---Geoffrey Wood, Central Banking --- "We should ALL read this important book. . . . While many of GDP’s shortcomings are well-known, Coyle sets out elegantly and compellingly why these issues have now become so numerous, and so serious, that we should rethink radically how we measure our progress."---Kate Barker, The Society of Professional Economists --- "This is an important and timely book on a subject that has for too long been consigned to the fringes of economic and policy thinking: finding a more accurate metric than Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to measure economic growth and value."---David Goodhart, The Critic --- "[The Measure of Progress] should be widely read by anyone involved in economic policymaking or research."---Vic Duggan, Irish Times --- "The Measure of Progress works well as a standalone read. . . . [But] the real value of The Measure of Progress lies in its timing. Coyle reflects that while writing it economists, following the effects of the pandemic and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, were preoccupied with productivity and inflation respectively. Scrutinising GDP of course fits in well with this agenda. . . . Coyle’s focus on a statistical infrastructure to better measure and understand where value lies in global production networks could not be more relevant."---Alan Smith, Financial Times --- "A Financial Times Best Economics Book of the Summer"

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
List of figures and tables Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	1
1 “Political Arithmetick” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	9
2 Productivity without Products Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	34
3 Dematerialisation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	72
4 (Dis)intermediation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	99
5 Free Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	126
6 Borders Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	154
7 Value Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	178
8 Wealth Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	205
9 A New Framework? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	240
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	265
Acknowledgements Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	293
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	297
A NOTE ON THE TYPE Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	307

Publishing information

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

eBook published on:

February 18, 2025

eBook ISBN:

9780691271286

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691271286

eBook ISBN: 9780691271286

Keywords for this book

Economic; Economic measurement; economic statistics; economic welfare; GDP; progress.; wellbeing; Price; Data; Services; Production; Economy; Capital; Market; Digital; Productivity; Statistics; Growth; Products; Change; Measure; Consumer; Firms; Goods; Measurement; Business; Sector; Et; Activities; Welfare; Output; Technology; Online; Assets; Innovation; Consumption; Networks; Labour; Estimate; Countries; Scale; Framework; Software; Household; Survey; Infrastructure; Research; Accounts; Policy; Income; Companies; Trade; Investment; Human; Literature; Issue; Shifts; Wealth; Cloud; Information; Costs; Official; Focus; Aggregate; Demand; Inflation; Indices; Statistical; Components; Economists

Audience(s) for this book

For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research

The Measure of Progress

Overview

About this book

Author / Editor information

Reviews

Topics

Table of contents

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